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The rainmaker

Associated PressWhile dire warnings of coastal flooding --- which haven't really panned out --- got all the attention before the storm, rainfall on the high side of what was predicted made inland flooding the real story of this nor'easter.

Sunday's nor'easter is by no means a done deal as of this writing (12:39 a.m. on Monday), although most of its energy, and certainly its rainfall, have already been felt by us here in the New York metro area.

When the storm finally decides to move away from our area --- probably on Tuesday --- we'll finally be able to take stock, but it already looks like its greatest legacy will be as a rainmaker.

As of 10 p.m. Sunday night Central Park had received 6.34 inches of rain for the day, which is a phenomenal number. We had set a new daily precipitation record by 2 p.m., ultimately topping the old daily mark of 1.82 inches set in 1906 by nearly five inches. We also, easily, set a new record for the wettest day on record for the entire month of April, beating the 4.31 inches set on April 10, 1983.

But wait, there's more. April 2007 has now established itself as the third wettest April on record, exactly halfway through the month, and should become the second wettest in short order. Yesterday was also the fourth wettest day of all time on record in New York City, according to our preliminary figures.

As we said, this nor'easter isn't out of our hair just yet. It moved very slowly all day yesterday, and as of this writing was still well south of us, off the Virginia coast. But its track has so far been farther west than initially predicted, which probably had something to do with keeping the coastal flooding from being the mega-disaster that was predicted.

With the center of the low closer to us, the pressure gradient was lessened, and therefore so were the winds. With the winds not as strong as anticipated, neither were the tidal surges. But again, it's too soon to render a final verdict on the coastal aspect of this storm.

It also bears noting that forecasts of coastal flooding in the New York metro area are, to our observation, routinely overblown. Some vulnerable locations did get hit yesterday, but we saw nothing more than minor coastal flooding anywhere in the metro area.

All the rain that fell instead made inland flooding the real story. Those numbers we railed off above are remarkable; check back with us tomorrow for the final stats. And the intensity of this low pressure center is also, well, intense. As of midnight Sunday we were looking at a barometric reading of 28.98 inches, which is hurricane territory --- and that's with the low's center still down by Virginia. We'll be interested to see how low the barometer gets today.

Looking farther afield, we see a return to high pressure and fair weather by midweek. While today and Tuesday shouldn't see anywhere near as much rain as Sunday, it's still going to feel raw and somewhat nasty. The atmosphere doesn't recover quickly from a battering like this.

By next weekend we should be looking at mild temperatures in the 60s, which is normal for this point in the spring. But by then the damage will be done; this April will go in the books as an incredibly wet and cold one. The cruelest month, indeed.